PanthersNuclearPower7 - Radiation Sickness

What is radiation sickness?

is an illness or sickness caused by excessive exposure to ionizing radiation
- Nonionizing radiation usually comes from light, radio waves, micro waves, and radar- this does not usually cause tissue damage.
- ionizing radiation has immediate chemical effects on the human tissue. X-rays and gamma rays are examples that give off ionizing radiation. However some ionizing radiaition can be used for medical treatments and tests.

Symptoms:

Causes:

Radiation sickness is generally associated with acute exposure
Radiation can occur when high doses of radiation damage cells in ones body
low doses of radiation such as x-rays will not cause radiation sickness unless one is exposed extremely often
can get sick when exposed to:
- nuclear weapons/ nuclear power plants.
- excessive exposure to medical treatments with radiation

Treatments:

First one must be decontaminated by changing clothes which removes about 90 percent of external contamination then washing with soap and water prevents further damage.
internal contamination has different treatments depending on exposure
- iodine is essential for thyroid function, so if the thyroid absorbs radioactive iodine (radioiodine) is will become sick so instead the body is injected with potassium iodine to fill the vacancies in the thyroid before the radioactive iodine can be absorbed.
- Prussian Blue binds to particles of radioactive elements which are then excreted. So this helps speed up getting the radiation particles out of the body.

Effects/ Life Expectancy:

depending on severity of illness that the radiation has caused, you can die any where from two days to two week (chances of recovery are very slim)
those with a lethal dosage of radiation cant have many other medications other than to help the pain.
Some radiation exposure can cause cancers, and depending on the cancer and the severity life expectancy can change drastically.